Tejo Internacional concentrates 70% of the black vulture population in Portugal | birds
The Tagus International Natural Park (PNTI) concentrates more than 70% of the country’s black vulture population, species threatened and classified in Portugal, and this year 31 pairs nested in the park’s territory. In a statement released this Saturday, the environmental association Quercus states that “this year, 31 pairs of black vulture nested in the International Tagus”, which represents “a trend towards recovery of the species in Portugal”.
“Of these [31], three couples on the property are on Quercus land, on the Natural platform of the Tagus Internacional note the other two in a natural nest”, it reads. The black vulture (Aegypius monachus) is an endangered scavenger, classified in Portugal as “critically endangered”.
This scavenger stopped nesting in Portugal in the early 1970s. Only in 2010 did this species breed in our country in the Tagus Internacional, Douro Internacional and, since 2015, also in the Alentejo. For some years now, the PNTI has concentrated the largest number of birds of this species in the country, always representing around 70% of the national total.
“The PNTI is home to the largest breeding colony of black vulture in Portugal, the second largest national population of vulture in Egypt and griffon vulture and several species of critically endangered avifauna of high biological value”, underline the environmentalists.
Environmentalists also add that during this period of studies, “10 black vultures flew in the PNTI”, which were tagged, monitored and collected selected to continue the toxicology studies.
The core of Castelo Branco da Quercus joins today the commemorations of the International Day of Vultures to raise awareness about the importance of species and alert to the risk of extinction.
Environmentalists celebrate this day with the release at the PNTI of two vultures recovered in the Animal Studies and Recovery of Wild Animals (CERAS) and taking stock of the 2022 breeding season of several endangered species of vultures in that natural park.
The various conservation projects and the Data Centers coming from the various conservation projects and the Recovery Centers in Portugal non-Grifo 19 and three 2027 data that were projected according to the mortality of the Black Vulture and Egyptian Vulture species), “the other main threats to scavenger birds were poisoning (45%), followed by electrocution on electric poles due to lack of food (20%) and (12%)”.
The PN encompasses the valley of the Tagus River section, front bordering valleys, a spacecraft of 4 hectares and covers the valley of the Tagus River section, the valleys on the edge of the territory and a surface of 26. .